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Title: Democrats reject GOP amendment to require health bill to be available online before vote
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Published: Sep 24, 2009
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2009-09-24 01:40:39 by freepatriot32
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Keywords: Democrats, GOP amendment, health bill, libertarians
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Comments: 7
WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes. Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal. They also noted that their constituents are demanding that they read bills before voting. Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks. The Democrats noted that unlike other committees, the Finance Committee works off conceptual language that describes policies — instead of legislative language that ultimately becomes law, and which the GOP amendment would have required. Democrats accepted an alternate amendment to make conceptual language available online before a vote. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus heard some encouraging words Wednesday from a key centrist Democrat as he opened the second day of a committee meeting to debate and vote on his sweeping health overhaul bill. Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said she only wants to support legislation that reduces the deficit and holds down long-term costs. Baucus' bill, she said, "does meet these very important goals ... setting us on a sustainable path for the future." Lincoln is up for re-election in a conservative-leaning state so she's one of the moderate Democrats Baucus, D-Mont., needs to win over in his committee — and whose backing President Barack Obama will need if Congress is to deliver on his top domestic priority. Her comments underscored the delicate juggling act for Finance Committee Democrats as they deliberate Baucus' nearly $900 billion, 10-year bill: Making health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans while holding down spending. Baucus' legislation, built along the lines Obama is seeking, aims to extend coverage to most uninsured Americans, expand protections for those already covered and generally reduce the ruinous growth in medical costs nationwide. The first day of the committee's meeting to debate and vote on the bill dragged late into the night Tuesday with Republicans raising a slew of questions, from the legislation's cost to its basic constitutionality, and only one amendment out of 564 pending came to a vote. That was a non-controversial measure, approved by voice vote, creating a test project in Medicare to allow hospitalized patients to be monitored electronically from afar by specialists. As the committee took up a daunting task that has thwarted past congresses, Baucus heralded the occasion. "This is our opportunity to make history," he said. By the end of the night he just wanted an end in sight. "At some point we've got to get to amendments," Baucus said as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, raised question after question. "We've got to understand what's in this doggone bill," Hatch complained. "This is not some itty-bitty bill. This could wreck the country." Baucus is aiming to get the bill through his committee by the end of the week and ultimately he's expected to succeed. But if Day One was any measure, there will be plenty of fights along the way. In a sign of the tensions evoked by the bill, several committee Democrats called for increasing the rebates that drug companies must pay the government for certain low-income patients. That would breach an agreement among the White House, Baucus and drug makers under which drug companies have agreed to pay $80 billion toward the cost of a health overhaul, including reducing prescription drug prices for some seniors. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complained that he and others were never part of the deal with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and were under no obligation to protect drug makers from further costs. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, responded angrily that the deal would stand, noting that the White House helped adopt it. Baucus kept his mouth shut through the debate on drug costs but postponed a vote on the amendment until Wednesday. The amendment's author, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the change would raise some $86 billion which he would use to protect seniors enrolled in private insurance plans under Medicare from any changes under the legislation. Despite Obama's repeated claims that Medicare benefits will not be cut, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf told senators Tuesday that the elderly in the private Medicare Advantage plans could see reduced benefits under Baucus' bill. Baucus' bill is the most conservative, and cheapest, of five bills in Congress, and as a result committee Democrats and the one Republican whose vote Baucus is courting — Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine — had concerns about whether it did enough to make insurance affordable for people who will face a new requirement to buy it. Baucus announced $50 billion in changes Tuesday to address that issue. The most significant would sweeten the subsidies for individuals and families with incomes up to four times the government's poverty level — which would work out to be $43,320 for individuals and $88,200 for a family of four. Baucus also decided to reduce the penalty for families who defy a proposed requirement to purchase coverage, from $3,800 to $1,900. Elmendorf estimated in a letter to Baucus that some families with annual incomes in the range of $66,000 could wind up spending as much as 20 percent of that — $13,300 — in out-of-pocket health expenses such as premiums and copays. The changes Baucus announced Tuesday would reduce that somewhat but the estimates still alarmed some Democrats. ___ Associated Press writers David Espo and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
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#1. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
What's that sucking sound?? It's the sound of the vacuum created as every turd- world POS vacates their shit-hole homeland and makes tracks to the "Land Of Free Health Care For Everybody And Their Dog!!!"TM
_________________________________________________________________________ This is the same guy (although a Congressman at the time) in 1992 applauded the FBI/CIA/ATF/US MILITARY covert invocation breaching a church in Waco, TX murdering about 90 women,children and men. He will go down with his pal, Teddy to HELL.
“Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves.”
There's a weird kind of logic to this. If they, as representatives, don't know what's in the bill then for them to be truly representing us, we shouldn't know what is in the bill either. It's like a game of friggin' Russian Roulette at this point, only with 5 chambers loaded and one empty. This will not end well.
MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
Rumor has it that Ted took along his asbestos diapers just in case.
I would expect this answer from someone who is either completely stupid, or hiding something. Well, then again look at who we are talking about.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms....The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson
its more like Russian Roulette played with a semi automatic
If one doesn't fit neatly into some government category, they're different and must be fixed.-jethro tull
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#2. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., complained that he and others were never part of the deal with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and were under no obligation to protect drug makers from further costs.
#3. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
#4. To: buckeroo (#2)
#5. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
![](http://mms.tvland.com/asset_upload/assets/ken_osmond.jpg")
#6. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
Democrats said it was a delay tactic that could have postponed a vote for weeks.
#7. To: SonOfLiberty (#3)
It's like a game of friggin' Russian Roulette at this point, only with 5 chambers loaded and one empty.
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